


Traces of Love

by illopenthedoortoheavenorhell



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Season/Series 10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 09:16:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3890854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illopenthedoortoheavenorhell/pseuds/illopenthedoortoheavenorhell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas unwittingly lets Dean know how he really feels about him. </p>
<p>Set in Season 10.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traces of Love

Cas is sitting on a lumpy mattress in a dingy motel room. Cas has shed his trench coat and suit jacket in favor of a little comfort. He kept the tie, unable to fully shed the stodgy tax accountant demeanor he has become used to sporting after being in this vessel for so long. A sleeping Dean is lying under the covers next to Cas, snoring. Cas nudges Dean gently, attempting to roll him over so he’ll stop snoring. 

“What do you want, Cas?” Dean mumbles groggily.

“Dean, you are snoring. Please roll over and shut up. I am trying to get some research done,” Cas says grumpily. 

“Sorry, man,” Dean says as he rolls over onto his stomach and promptly falls back asleep.

Cas just sighs and shakes his head, returning to his book of lore. He reads for a few more hours, eventually looking up to give his eyes a break and rolling his head around to stretch out his neck. Dean shifts on the bed. Cas freezes, afraid he’s woken the hunter. Cas knows Dean barely sleeps most nights, can only get some real rest when Cas is around to ward off Dean’s nightmares. 

Cas glances down at Dean with an affectionate gaze. Cas hasn’t been around much lately, has been off searching for something, anything, to give them a clue about how to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean. Cas hates coming back to the Winchesters empty-handed, with nothing to show for his time away from them, but Sam had called Cas yesterday, practically begging him to come back. Sam said Dean was getting worse, acting more erratic, and the nightmares were getting worse. Sam didn’t know what to do anymore, nothing he could do was helping Dean. 

Cas didn’t know what he could do to help Dean either, but at least with his grace back, he could protect Dean’s subconscious as he slept, allow Dean to get some real rest for the first time in weeks. Cas hates feeling this powerless. He would give anything, had already given everything, to help his hunter, but there was nothing he could do to protect him now but sit by his side as he sleeps. 

While Cas is pondering his shortcomings as a protector and making plans for his next research journey, he absentmindedly reaches out and rests his palm on Dean’s back. Cas can feel Dean’s muscles through his thin, ratty AC/DC shirt, can feel the heat radiating off Dean as he sleeps. Cas huffs a small sigh, contentment and affection running through his veins, tempering the fear and anxiety that have been his constant companions since he first learned of this terrible curse Dean took on months ago. 

Cas idly starts tracing circles on Dean’s back, more to soothe himself than Dean, since Dean is still knocked out, his breathing deep and even. Cas considers their history, remembers the first time Dean saw Cas in that barn in Illinois. Cas had not understood Dean then, still did not understand him now. Years ago, Dean did not think he deserved to be saved, did not understand why Cas had searched Dean out in Hell to raise him back up. Even now, after helping to prevent the Apocalypse, after everything Dean had done to help others, save the world, he still did not think he deserved to be saved. Cas wishes Dean could see himself through Cas’s eyes, Sam’s eyes, really anyone who knew Dean’s eyes, so he could see the incredible value his life has. Cas notices with slight surprise the circles he had been tracing on Dean’s back have turned into hearts.

Cas sighs again, softly, still frustrated with Dean’s inability to see his own worth, to see why he is worth saving, each and every time, to see why Cas has given up so much for him. Dean shifts slightly, still fast asleep. Cas shakes his head, trying to clear his mind, to return his focus to something productive, like the next leg of his journey, but all he finds himself thinking about is Dean - his soft full lips, his intense green eyes, his bright smile that Cas hasn’t seen in far too long, the broad muscular back under Cas’s hand, his beautiful soul, now marred by this cursed Mark. 

Cas gently spells out “I love you, Dean Winchester” across Dean’s back with his finger. Cas then snaps his finger and the dim light in the motel room suddenly goes out. Cas once again thinks how nice it is to have his grace back - sometimes it’s the little things in life, he supposes.

Although he doesn’t need to sleep, Cas stretches out on his back on the bed next Dean, leaving a respectable distance between them on the bed. Although Cas has never been big on personal space, especially with Dean, Dean had laid out the rules when they checked into the hotel and found out they only had a room with one double bed left. “Two buddies sharing a bed don’t touch when they sleep, man, I better not wake up to find you all wrapped around me,” Dean had warned him. “Of course, Dean,” Cas had agreed, if only to make the hunter happy. 

Cas settles himself in for a few hours rest. He lets his mind wander, and is so focused on his memories of his brothers and sisters in heaven, before everything went bad and he chose humanity over his brethren, that he doesn’t notice Dean rolling over onto his side. Cas jumps a little when Dean moves closer and wraps an arm around Cas’s waist, putting his mouth right next to Cas’s ear. 

“I love you, too, Cas,” Dean whispers into Cas’s ear, his lips ghosting over Cas’s ear as he says the most important words Cas has ever heard. Dean leaves his head right where it is, resting next to Cas’s on his pillow, Dean’s arm still draped over Cas’s waist as he falls right back to sleep, as if he didn’t just turn Cas’s world on its head. 

Cas smiles, so happy he could burst, but not daring to move an inch, wanting to stay wrapped in Dean’s arms as long as he possibly can.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to otpprompts on Tumblr for the prompt!
> 
> This is my first fic... be gentle!


End file.
